Bridgeton Shot Marking 200th Year Seconds Early

BRIDGETON, May 13—A block of Broad Street here was cordoned off today and began a year of Bicentennial celebrations with a ceremony at the historic tavern where The Plain Dealer, said to be New Jersey's first newsletter, was published 200 years ago.

All went well today except that the Third Regiment of the Cumberland Grays, a Civil War re‐enactment organization, fired its three‐pounder off‐cue, startling the local historian, who was in midsentence on the speaker's stand on the porch of the tavern.

Joseph X. Young Jr., captain of the regiment, explained later that the master of ceremonies had failed to pause for him to fire the 1842‐model cannon after the national anthem, so Captain Young's crew decided to blast away anyway.

“We had a fourth of a pound of black powder in it, plus a wad of flour,” he said, “and we had to get rid of it. We didn't want to leave a live charge in there. If someone had walked past and it had gone off, he might have been burned or deafened.”

Captain Young, in tricornered hat and waistcoat and breeches, was more fortunate on his final salute. He fired the moment Mayor Edison D. Shinn had finished accepting a Bicentennial flag and certificate for Bridgeton from a representative of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission.

Mayor Shinn said the ceremony was be the first of several here, culminating on July 4, 1976, with a fete involving several of Bridgeton's 18th‐century buildings on Broad Street.

Today's activities were held at Potter's Tavern, two‐story salt‐box‐style inn built in 1770. It was saved from destruction in 1958 when the town bought it.

According to historians, the tavern, run by a Philadelphia blacksmith named Matthew Potter Jr., was a favorite gathering place in the early seventeen‐seventies for local firebrands plotting revolution against the Crown.

In 1775 they decided to publish a newsletter to circulate their views and those of like‐minded citizens of Cohansey Bridge, as Bridgeton was known then.

Written by Hand

Lacking a press, they accepted hand‐written essays. Eight issues of the weekly newsletter were produced from Christmas Day, 1775 to Feb. 12, 1776. Publication amounted to leaving copies at the tavern “so that they may be read every Tuesday morning by anyone that will take the trouble to call at Matthew Potter's bar.”

By the time No. 7 appeared, counsel to the Crown's subjects had become unrestrained.

“Arouse my Countrymen” an impassioned writer urged. “Let us draw our swords and never return them into their scabbards till we have rescued our Country from the Iron hand of Tyranny, And Secured the pure enjoyment of Liberty to generations yet unborn”

Among contributors to the short‐lived Plain Dealer were Dr. Jonathan Elmer, who became New Jersey's first United States Senator; and Richard Howell and Joseph Bloomfield, who became Governors of the state. The editor was Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, a surgeon who became a member of the House of Representatives. The town of Elmer, 20 miles north of here, was named for this pioneer family.

One copy of the eight numbers of The Plain Dealer survive. They were done by hand by Thomas Harris, a youth who later served on the revolutionary committee of Cumberland County. This manuscript is in the rarebook collection at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

John T. Cunningham, New Jersey historian, has said that the fact that The Plain Dealer appeared every Tuesday morning probably made it the first regular “newspaper” in the state.

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A version of this archives appears in print on May 14, 1975, on Page 95 of the New York edition with the headline: Bridgeton Shot Marking 200th Year Seconds Early. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe